Posts Tagged ‘Taliban’

In mid-2008 Barack Obama was running for his first term for the presidency. During the campaign his opponent, John McCain, shared a concern that Obama would be willing to negotiate with terrorists. As shown in the video clip below, Obama was at his best in his response not only being unequivocal that he would never negotiate with terrorists, but also attacking John McCain for even suggesting otherwise. Obama’s said:

“John McCain has repeated this notion that I’m prepared to negotiate with terrorists. I have never said that.

I’ve been adamant about not negotiating with Hamas, uh, a terrorist organization that has vowed to destroy Israel and won’t recognize it.

And that’s the kind of hypocrisy that we’ve been seeing in our foreign policy, the kind of fear-peddling, fear-mongering, that has prevented us from actually making us safe.”

Fast-forward six years and we have another Obama broken promise. First, the President has agreed to work with the Palestinian Authority even though they have brought Hamas into it. In addition, earlier this month Obama negotiated with the terrorist Taliban and exchanged five of their key operatives held in Gitmo for American hostage, Sgt. Bergdahl.

So, in 2008 did Barack Obama purposely mislead the electorate or are his words meaningless? The answer is probably both.

During Barack Obama’s run for his first term as president, one of his early and most vocal supporters in the mainstream media was ultra-leftist and MSNBC host Chris Matthews. One of Matthews’ more infamous comments was after listening to Obama indicated that he got a “thrill up my leg”. Demonstrating just how low this President’s approval has gone, even Matthews is jumping ship.

While the seeds of discontent from Matthews has been brewing for some time, Obama’s decision to trade five of the worst Taliban terrorists in exchange for one US POW, Bowe Bergdahl’s, who it is reported deserted his post, has Matthews all lathered up, as seen in the video clips below.

Watch out Chris. You are likely to be demonized as just another part of the right-wing conspiracy. Now that’s justice!

It is remarkable the number of scandals and crisis that have rocked the Obama Administration in recent years. The trend is accelerating. It seems on a nearly weekly basis a new crisis becomes public.

Late last month the Veteran Administration Hospitals scandal broke. Evidently hospitals were falsifying records so that management would receive bonuses for false performance. It is reported that veterans died waiting for medical treatment during this period.

This week the story broke of a questionable deal President Obama authorized releasing five very bad terrorists from the Guantánamo Bay prison in exchange for the release by the Taliban of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. The furor over this deal is multifaceted. First, there is the question as to whether potential future danger to Americans from the released terrorists makes the trade inappropriate. In addition, questions are being raised as to whether this deal will motivate terrorists to kidnap other Americans for use as trade bait.

Finally, there is strong evidence that Sgt. Bergdahl deserted his base that led to his capture by the Taliban. While this issue should not preclude the US from attempting to obtain the POWs release, it raises questions as to why the President is his Rose Garden appearance with Bergdahl’s parents was made. In addition, why did Susan Rice once again go on a Sunday talk show and claim that Bergdahl served his country honorably when there is strong evidence to the contrary?

Concerns about the Bergdahl matter are not only being expressed by Republicans, but by Democrats also. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Democrat from California and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairperson, called the President’s actions “very disappointing”.

Even the mainstream media has expressed concerns on the president’s handling of this prisoner swap. CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said of Obama’s unwillingness to give the Congress the required 30 day notice before transferring Guantánamo Bay prisoners that it: “I think he clearly broke the law. The law says 30-days’ notice. He didn’t give 30-days’ notice,” and. “it is true he issued a signing statement, but signing statements are not law. Signing statements are the president’s opinion on what the law should be.”

Toobin correctly concludes: “The law is on the books, and he didn’t follow it,” and that it “matters whether people follow the law or not.” This President has, however, acted more like an Emperor than a servant of the people. Unfortunately, the mainstream media’s silence over the last six years has emboldened Obama to take powers not granted him by the Constitution. It is likely he will continue on this path as long as he remains in office.

In yet another sign of the brutality of radical Islam, the New York Times reported that the Taliban assassinated 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan. The young girl’s crime: she dared call for equal rights for women.

In confirming their role in the assassination, Taliban spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan stated: “She has become a symbol of Western culture in the area; she was openly propagating it,” and that if she survived her serious wounds, they would try to kill her again.

For her courage and speaking out, Ms. Yousafzai was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize and was awarded her Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace Prize. This recognition threatens the power of conservative and radical Islamists in their drive to maintain power and to subjugate women.

Politicians including Barack Obama often proclaim Islam’s peaceful intent. While this is true of many followers of Islam, it not publicly proclaimed by the majority of followers. While followers of Islam will march in the streets by the 10,000s to protest a distasteful cartoon, there is not one protest for the brutal shooting of a brave 14-year-old Muslim girl.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi has been sentenced to 33 years in a Pakistani prison. His crime? Dr. Afridi helped the CIA tracked down Osama bin Laden who was killed last year in Pakistan by US special forces.

The Afridi incident shows once again that Pakistan is no friend of the United States and an unreliable partner in the war against terror. American foreign policy for too many years has focused on appeasing this dysfunctional and rogue nation. During this period, Pakistan has played a game of duplicity that included acting as if it was fighting terrorism, while at the same time its Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency supported terrorism and the Taliban.

On the border of Pakistan is the largest democracy in the world, India, who was also been on the receiving end of Pakistani terrorism. The United States should have long ago played the “India card” against Pakistan. Assuming it would still have us, the United States should immediately strengthen its relations with India and cancel all aid to Pakistan and its military.

The United States is preparing to leave Afghanistan after a long war has led to few benefits for any except the crooked warlords of Afghanistan. Whether Washington likes it or not, Pakistan will likely dominate Afghanistan after that period. It’s time to move on to a different strategic policy in the region.

The New York Times reported on the disintegrating military situation in Afghanistan in an article titled Afghan Assaults Signal Evolution of a Militant Foe. This past weekend Taliban forces carried out a series of raids throughout Afghanistan that included its cities of Kabul, Jalalabad, Gardez, and Pul-e-Alam. The breadth, scope and sophistication of these raids caught US military officials by surprise.

Shortly after the Taliban raids, Afghan President Hamid Karzai blamed his Western allies for not stopping the attacks stating that they were the result of “intelligence failure for us, and especially NATO.” Making matters worse, the U.S. military believes the attacks were carried out by the Haqqani network who has been accused of close ties with the Pakistani intelligence service. It doesn’t take a great deal of connecting the dots to conclude that the Pakistani spy agency is paying the United States back for its raid last year that assassinated Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil.

The Times also reported that some US military officials are beginning to now question Pres. Obama’s proposed 2014 timeframe for US troop withdrawal. However, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta as a bad case of denial saying of the raids: “We’re going to continue to see suicide attacks. We’re going to continue to see efforts by them to try to undermine confidence in Afghanistan that we’re headed in the right direction. It hasn’t worked in the past. I don’t think it’ll work in the present.”

Now in its eleventh year, the war in Afghanistan is going poorly. Like Johnson and Nixon during the Vietnam war, President Obama mistakenly believes that incrementally increasing pressure on a nationalistic and insurgent enemy will break its will to fight. Such policies are doomed to fail. It is only a matter of time before the United States and NATO will leave Afghanistan. The Taliban and, however, will remain and may likely defeat the corrupt government in Kabul. Given this, President Obama’s unwillingness to exit Afghanistan merely waste American lives and money. As this Blog has questioned previously, where is the mainstream media and Leftist antiwar movement that was so vocal when George W. Bush was president?

This Blog has previously expressed the view that the United States should have exited the Afghan War years ago. That war is not winnable nor does the United States have strategic interests in that country.

The often used excuse for continuing the Afghan War is to keep Afghanistan from again becoming a haven for terrorists. However, history has proven that when such groups are out in the open, they are easier to take out. It took only a few months with special forces and air power to rout the Taliban and their terrorist buddies. Eleven years later and America’s new Viet Nam continues to deteriorate, as epitomized by recent news stories.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that the American trained Afghan Air Force is running drugs and illicit weapons. This sounds eerily similar to the corrupt South Vietnamese military. This report came from an investigation by the US military and DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration). U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Daniel Bolger, commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Training Mission-Afghanistan, was quoted: “The nature of the allegations is fairly dramatic and indicated that [AAF officials] were transporting drugs on aircraft and transported weapons not owned by the government of Afghanistan for the use of private groups“. Training the Afghan forces to take over when NATO leaves is unworkable.

This past weekend things took a tragic turn. An American soldier went rouge killing 16 innocent civilians in Kandahar province. This was not only a tragedy for the victims and their families, but on top of the Koran burning makes a tenuous relationship between Afghan and US forces nearly untenable.

While President Obama did not start the Afghan War, he escalated America’s involvement and it is now his war, a second Viet Nam. Unfortunately, this president has been no more willing to admit his errors in Afghanistan than Johnson or Nixon did in Viet Nam. Where is the mainstream media? Where are the anti-war protestors from the Left?

Last week photos of for US Marines urinating on Taliban corpses that they killed went viral on the Internet. The result of this deplorable act includes damaging the reputation of the United States and the Corps that the four soldiers serve.

Naturally, the Leftists of the world and in the media are having a field day. It is remarkable that in our society the killing of the four Taliban is acceptable, but what is done to their bodies after that gets the publicity.

Congressman Allen West from Florida, a retired Army lieutenant colonel with combat experience, made a statement posted below concerning the Taliban incident. It is not surprising to hear straightforward logic from this great American.

“I have sat back and assessed the incident with the video of our Marines urinating on Taliban corpses. I do not recall any self-righteous indignation when our Delta snipers Shugart and Gordon had their bodies dragged through Mogadishu. Neither do I recall media outrage and condemnation of our Blackwater security contractors being killed, their bodies burned, and hung from a bridge in Fallujah.

“All these over-emotional pundits and armchair quarterbacks need to chill. Does anyone remember the two Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division who were beheaded and gutted in Iraq?

The Marines were wrong. Give them a maximum punishment under field grade level Article 15 (non-judicial punishment), place a General Officer level letter of reprimand in their personnel file, and have them in full dress uniform stand before their Battalion, each personally apologize to God, Country, and Corps videotaped and conclude by singing the full US Marine Corps Hymn without a teleprompter.

As for everyone else, unless you have been shot at by the Taliban, shut your mouth, war is hell.”

The United States has spent over 10 years, spent billions of dollars and expended its solders’ lives to assist the Afghan people against the Taliban. It is bad enough that this tremendous effort is not going well. However, last week’s statement by Afghan President Karzai shows the futility of continuing them.

In an interview broadcast last Saturday on a major Pakistan television network, Karzai said: “God forbid, if any war took place between Pakistan and the United States, we will stand by Pakistan. If Pakistan is attacked and if the people of Pakistan needed Afghanistan’s help, Afghanistan will be there with you.” Unbelievable!

Karzai’s incredible statement is telling on various fronts. First, he is using American treasure to fight what is a tribal (civil) war. By indicating he would side with Pakistan over the U.S. without even considering the dispute shows a loyalty to Islam before Afghanistan. This insular view of Islam verses the infidels is deeply ingrained is a contributor to the growing chasm between many Islamic countries and the West.

President Obama should have demanded a public apology for Karzai for his statement. After Karzai refusal Obama then would have had an excuse for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, a war not worth fighting. But that would take moxie and a strategy, neither of which this President has demonstrated.

Before Republican readers of this Blog get too giddy, they too are complicate with a lack of leadership on Afghanistan. They have the power to stop funding this unnecessary war.

The New York Times today posted an article about the ongoing problems with the Afghan War effort. Since America took out Osama Bin Laden six weeks ago, there has been a significant increase in the cross-border attacks from Pakistan into Afghanistan. These attacks are mainly in the form of rockets, some fired from within a mile of Pakistani military bases indicating Pakistani complicity in them. This year there have been 55 such attacks compared to only two the year earlier.

The Times report is an indication why Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, last month publically called Pakistan on its support of guerillas. He then called the insurgents that attacked the American Embassy in the Kabul “a veritable arm” of Pakistan’s military intelligence service.

Pakistan’s duplicity and support of terrorism should not be a surprise. They have used it as a tool of their foreign policy for decades, mainly in a dispute with India over Kashmir. The world turned a blind-eye to Pakistan’s dirty efforts that have resulted in civilian deaths in India, as it has with other Islamic causes that use terrorism. Allowing the genie of terrorism out of the bottle will be costly for the world for years into the future.

Pakistani duplicity is only part of the problem in Afghanistan. The Afghan War has taken on too many similarities to America’s tragic efforts in Viet Nam. 1) In both cases the enemy had significant guerilla forces. 2) Both saw lengthy periods of battlefield stagnation. 3) South Viet Nam and Afghanistan had/have corrupt governments with limited popular support. 4) In Afghanistan, the guerillas have safe haven in Pakistan. In Viet Nam there was Cambodia. 5) In both wars, America failed to follow the Powell Doctrine that calls for overwhelming force to win wars quickly and decisively.

The Afghan War is now 10 years running without significant progress being made since the Taliban were removed from power nearly ten years ago. This will not change with additional months/years of American effort. President Obama’s surge plan has failed. No further expenditure of American dollars or blood will change the ultimate results of this struggle. The Taliban will return to power unless the Afghan people have the desire and will to stop it.

President Obama, like other armchair warriors including President Lyndon Johnson, are ill-prepared to make strategic decisions relating to the use of military force. Obama incredibly believes that troop withdrawal decisions can be planned even before a battle is fought. Such decisions can only be made after battles are won (or lost).

There are telling differences between the Viet Nam and Afghan wars. During the Viet Nam debacle the mainstream media and Left called Johnson (and later Nixon) on their failed strategies. These groups today are quiet on Obama’s Afghanistan folly. Instead, the Progressives gave Obama the Noble Peace Prize. We certainly live in strange times!